Being new in practice (If you’re a yogi practicing at least 5 years) there are so much fundamentals for a yogi to learn and we tend to forget to be mindful of our asanas. Over the weekend, the amazing folks of Yoga Tribe brought in Laruga Yoga in Manila. It was a perfect opportunity to expand our awareness inside the poses we may have found most challenging in our practice.

I must say, my entire arm felt the sore. I typically feel the good sore in different areas of my body but this time, with Laruga’s teaching, I got to activate my arms correctly. As they say, where the good sore is, those are the weak spots your body felt needs a lot to be worked on and strengthen.

Laruga’s objective during the weekend workshop was to awaken our core: the Bandhas, Breath and to get into our arm balances with power and grace plus having to deconstruct how to transition properly by working back on our vinyasa.

It may sound simple but having to point out every movement gave us the experience on why our Bandhas (core) are important in our practice. This is something you get to hear over and over again especially athletes who are working on their strength and flexibility in different fields yet we tend to neglect.

Deconstructing our asanas, the downward facing Dog pose was pointed out as the most fundamental in our practice as it is often done in preparation to warm up backbends; it’s intertwined in all the vinyasa and sun salutations.

If you’re not comfortable on the downward dog, you may do the modified version. It’s okay if your heels doesn’t seem to reach the ground just yet (mine doesn’t!).

In order for you to avoid having painful wrists and arms, you’d have to be mindful of each movement. You really want to make sure you’re not collapsing weight into the base of the hands, but rather, keep actively pushing the mat away by pressing into the base of the fingers and the fingertips. You may also roll the front of the mat and rest your wrist when you push you push the mat away.

Misalignment in downward dog can lead to tension in the body as practitioners struggle to hold the pose; or, even worse, strain in the wrists, shoulders, and beyond due to improper weight distributionIt’s important to also check on your overall alignment.

Let go of your head – avoid the tension.

Elbows rotate outward

Your arms/arm pits should be away to make your entire stretch long

palms and finger tips spread wide open

Feet and hips are aligned, distance apart.

long spine and keep your core tucked in

don’t pull your back down instead keep your core intact.

eyes gaze towards your navel.

press the heels towards the mat (no tip toe-ing!)

Once you dance your way to chaturanga, feel the flow on the mat. Most of us lift our toes up and adjusts wherein supposedly, or much better, curl and remain on the floor. With the right flow, there won’t be any adjustments needed from your toes to your arms (It takes practice, really! but it feels great to dance to yoga!)

The tone of the legs shouldn’t be forced, the thighs are lifting off the floor, it should never touch the floor from the time we do chaturanga up to the upward position and should activate the thighs. Draw the belly, and gaze towards the nose.

Here’s another trick: Gazing towards the nose will make our face soft.

Looks like I’d have to keep tab and curate different posts for all that I’ve learned during the workshop. Let me go through the bends on my next post.

Intense throbbing, pulsing and excruciating pain on your head’s temple or in one side of the head accompanied by sensitivity to bright lights, noise and everything else turns out to be irritants. Migraines, everyone’s possible kryptonite typically is married with nausea, vomiting and uneasiness. Once symptoms strike, don’t wait for the pain become unbearable.

What can you do? If you’re the type who refuse and would rather skip the over-the-country prescription medication; here are few natural wonders which may also work for you.

Set the mood

Retreat yourself away from any bright lights, and give yourself the peace you need or if relaxing meditation tunes works, plug it in and get some shut eye.

Shower Therapy

Take long showers and hang in there up until you feel a little much more relieved. Sometimes you might need to switch the water condition from cold to warm. See what works. The sound and feel of water slide through your skin has a calming effect which balances your body temperature.

Temple, Neck and Shoulder Massage

Stress, lack of sleep and enduring a long tiring day may also trigger migraines. Massaging reflex points, where it hurts and on the hands and feet may also support pain relief. In fact, researchers in Brazil showed that massaging the greater occipital nerve – the area in the back of the head, at the base of the skull – reduces migraine pain.

The scent of Lavender, Eucalyptus or Mint

The minty soothing scents of these herbs relaxes the trigger points. Although there is not much scientific research backing up this remedy, aromatherapy has been used to relieve stress and pain for thousands of years and generally safe.

Hydrate

If you’re not a huge fan of gulping on water, you can help yourself by adding lemon or cucumber to give it a pleasant taste.

Generally, what’s common on these natural wonder tips revolves around relaxation, and nourishing your body well. Keep a diary of what you’ve eaten, how often migraine occurs and analyze what may have been triggering this pain. Typically it all boils down to eating clean and getting rid of the processed food. Take good care of your health, supplement yourself with the right nutrition, release toxicity through exercise and manage your stressors. Strive for balance, and you’ll be on your way to bid migraine goodbye.

I haven’t blogged for months (or has it been a year?) and it’s about due time for me to get my active lifestyle documented to keep me going and even more accountable. When I started this blog back in the early 2000’s, it was measly just a blog to express how far I’ve run around the Butte of Jackson Hole, Wyoming and to entertain myself from living alone abroad without any family nearby and only just sports to keep my adrenaline up and happiness hormones spark.

Eventually from just trying to conquer a 3kms, I was able to progress to finishing pikermis and marathons; transitioned to trying out other sports and activities such as Pilates, Cycling, Swimming, Capoeira and tried all other things to keep me active.

Few years ago I was diagnosed with Polycystic ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and barely did anything. I didn’t have any urgency to take care of my body and just wanted to keep on going. Imagine not having to deal with red letter days for months and not having to endure the hassle and pain of women’s concerns every month, I thought it was cool. I thought it was convenient. Now that I am on my 30’s, when you’re thinking of family, all these fertility and making babies becomes your concern.

I had myself checked by our family Doctor, Dr. Rebecca Singson, M.D, a Robotic surgeon, laparoscopic surgeon, gynecologists and obstetrician at Asian Hospital in Muntinlupa. I had procedures done to look into me and it stated I now have Polycystic Ovaries on both ovaries with 12 cysts compared to just my right with only 6.

No wonder I am having difficulty in loosing weight (Yes, I’ve gained so much) and paired to being sedentary since I was asked not to stress my body from heavy workout and tension. I couldn’t take it any longer, I am now cleared to hop back to action hence I am bringing myself back to running, cycling and swimming aside from my on/off yoga practice.

I stopped training for my first supposed triathlon in 2014. It’s been a year and a half, it’s time to JUST DO IT.

If you don’t know of it yet, Polycystic ovarian syndrome is a health condition common in women of reproductive age caused by hormonal imbalance. In this condition, small cysts form in the ovaries which affect the hormones and disrupt the normal menstrual cycle. Women diagnosed with PCOS usually have increased level of male hormones and insulin resistance and lowered levels of progesterone. Some of the common causes of PCOS are excessive stress, anxiety, depression, a faulty lifestyle or perennial tension.

On my 32nd birthday, as I have been cleared to hop back into sports. I promised myself to get serious to yoga practice (Read: Laruga in Manila 2016 Workshop). The benefits of yoga for PMS are numerous. The relaxing and rejuvenating power of yoga helps a lot in dealing with PCOS symptoms as well because it helps release the deep rooted stress in the system.

Everything is all about balance. The main target is to get every woman with PCOS’ hormones get in the proper groove. Here are great reasons why you should practice yoga and I swear by it.

relieve stress

promotes weight loss

builds your confidence

makes you get to know yourself better

increases flexibility

balances your hormones

improves gastrointestinal balance

naturally teaches you to be kind.

fixes your monthly cycle.

Try it yourself. There are a lot of types of yoga, see what’s is great for you and stick to it. If there’s restorative or yin yoga, choose that. Your body will thank you for it in the long run. If you’re like me who’s also struggling and in the quest to fight Polycystic Ovaries, join me as we #fightPCOS.

On my 9th week (On my third pilates class), my trainer and I had a thorough chat about goals and timelines. We agreed to set clear intentions on why we’re doing what we’re doing. Again, Pilates is a mind and body movement; it goes beyond just lengthening and stretching, it also practices so much mind work and alignments.

While he was guiding me through my practice, he told me to keep in-mind this famous Pilates wisdom: “Wherever your eyes go, your head will follow. Wherever your head goes, your heart will follow”

I’d have to be honest though, I cringed a little but as I wake up everyday, having it listed on my phone to notify me in the morning to remind me of the wisdom, it’s slowly bringing so much weight and meaning – not just in terms of the mindful movement workout but also in general life decisions.

The game plan was ruled out. In a nutshell, I’d have to be diligent to my commitment. I promised to attend to my pilates sessions at least 3x a week for 90 days and we’ll focus on core and posture correction including progressive flexibility. As much as we wanted to tackle weight loss, we wanted to base the progress more on my body’s adaptability towards movement (and the inches). In my head, I was already imagining myself doing more headstands with much grace, handstands with so much strength and get to do splits again. Until then, maybe, Pilates would be the key towards working on my dream to happen. I do still want to take up Yoga certification in India. A girl can dream, right?

After Kevin and I had that chat while he was rolling some pilates balls on my back (the best part of each

Eye on the Prize. Let’s work on Progress.

session, PROMISE!) he had me go through posture analysis and karada scan to check on my body composition.

To check on progress and for me to keep an eye on the prize; we agreed to have the posture analysis after 30 sessions and have the composition check every month. Let’s talk about pressure! I’m excited and nervous all at the same time.

Being someone who hates knowing what the numbers say, I fearfully faced the reality. There’s so much work to do.

If you haven’t heard it yet, One shouldn’t depend on movement alone. Pay attention to nutrition. Remember: Change happens in the kitchen. The equation states: 80% Nutrition, 20% Movement.

I have a confession to make, I haven’t been sleeping according to schedule. Crawling to bed was the easiest part however snoozing my way to dreamland is a different story. No, I don’t think it’s the sandman’s fault nor the flock of sheep; it’s probably been the adjustment of my work-at-home schedule.

Truthful to my capabilities, compartmentalizing and zooming in to what matters. I left the employment world once again for academe. Sure, I have been entertaining opportunities, declined few and been sending out my CV to the industry I am hoping to hop back into after the long hiatus but the time just hasn’t arrived yet. Since there are bills to pay, I’ve been teaching business english to a number of Japanese CEO’s from 8PM until midnight. A girl needs to earn for her credit card debts, mobile subscription and all the healthy stuff she’d need to indulge herself into, not to forget, catching up with few friends and acquaintances I haven’t had the time to spend with when employment vacuumed me in.

Yesterday however taught me a lesson. I pushed myself and fueled myself with only caffein to boost. Driving the metro had me felt as if I was floating in a bubble, disturbed by every turn and my parking skills had me questionable. I attended a couple of meetings, which thankfully, I was fully conscious however once I got back into driving and when I attended my Pilates class; my body started to tremble. Controlling my powerhouse was such a chore, my mind and body weren’t cooperating and it was tougher to coordinate my movement.

You see, Pilates combines mindful movement. Yes, it does reduce stress, calm the mind & relax your mood. Yesterday was away from high intensity workouts, further away from alleviating the adrenaline hence trembling from the caffein was an unbelievable chore – I haven’t felt mindfully exhausted from trying to win over my body’s condition.

Remembering the short routine my pilates trainer made me do yesterday wasn’t even complicated yet it felt as if I was doing burpees or something torturous. After the routine, I had to stay longer at the studio to observe and nurse myself up until the trembling wore out. Girl, it was no joke. I’m never going to have black coffee ever again (The last time I had was 2 years ago and it had me passed out from Bikram Yoga practice).

My trainer at VIVIAN ZAPANTA PILATES STUDIO kept on asking me “How are you?” and I think, I kept on answering him a drunkard response “I’m OoOookaay.”

Sure, it was impressive that I was truthful to my commitment and followed my appointments however as much as we know how to live a healthy lifestyle, it’s learning how to live the lifestyle that’ll make you actually live it.

The key takeaway from the experience was to work out, eat clean and sleep accordingly. If you skimp on one, the rest of your days will be negatively affected which would mean, you’d have to recover more days than one.

My body has been sore from the straight days I have been challenging myself, working out on my breathing, working on my hips alignment, lengthening my spine and at the same time giving my powerhouse all the attention; not having to sleep right and depending on caffein can be incredibly frustrating.

The feeling was indescribably annoying. Your heart racing, mood-swings has turned its jolt from being cranky, hungry to frantic.

If you want to even be more truthful to your commitments and engagements, you’d have to be both mindfully alert and physically great. In order for one to achieve that is only when you get to give the reboot your body needs.

How much sleep do you get? As of typing this blog post, my eyes is also battling from feeling tired yet my mind is actively wanting to blog more, share what I’ve learned and my will-power saying, there’s no room for dilly-dallying. It’s a little bit piercing.

Going deeper on to the topic. We all do know that sleep is related to diseases and risk of death. Today’s generation somehow foresee sleep as a sign of weakness, an interruption to success (Remember the cliche: sleep is for the weak? Aye aye, Guilty!) yet for someone who’s quest is to FLY (First Love Yourself), it is essential one get to mindfully know the serious side-effect of not having to sleep, the full restful one.

Serious lack-of sleep side-effects includes some of the following:

Diabetes

heart-attack

organ failure

Obesity

Diabetes

Aside from the reasons above, lack of sleep actually dumbs you down. It affects how you decide on things, you become more impulsive, and more prone to accidents. You’ll have a difficult time concentrating, communicating your thoughts, calibrating your emotions and less likely to be qualitatively productive; worse, it can lead to depression (plus the caffein? Awful combo!), increase in blood pressure and have a hard time controlling your cortisol leading to higher BMI.

All these thoughts rummaged in as I felt like a caffein drunk individual. It was such a relief I was able to hang out at my former colleagues’ office to calm myself down, gulp on glasses of water and was able to calm my heart rate down. I safely got home, after an entire day of struggling and combating with the sleep deprived plus caffein punch.

From hereon in, I vow to sleep by midnight, right after the work obligation and not to fuel myself with black coffee ever again. If I’m focusing on the FLY, then one needs to be mindful in all aspects – including sleep.

It’s going to take awhile for me to get back to the distance I’m aiming and training for knowing my body is still adjusting and re-adjusting but with determination and persuasion, everything or anything is doable!

The summer finally gave it’s final push, our tropical country has welcomed the monsoon season.

On my 7th week, I worked on running intervals. I’ve progressed from jogging an entire 3km. Started to follow the Jeff Galloway Run-Walk-Run running method again and perhaps, going to push for another Marathon next year. It’s been 5 years since The Bull Runner Marathon and my first international race in Singapore. Within the weeks of logging in mileage, I have improved, cutting 8 minutes of my time from the first day, 35 minutes down to 27 minutes for a 3km and 35minutes for a 5km (3km jog, and 2:1 towards the last stretch). Hopefully, in time, I’ll be able to achieve 3km in 18minutes (my then PR) and 25minutes for a 5km.

Towards the start of my 8th week. Life as it happens was quite challenging but thankfully, I was still able run 3kms with a 1.5km walk, 4kms run and lifted some weights, a 1000m catch-up freestyle paddles and a half-day Bodyblast Pilates program at Vivian Zapanta’s Studio in Salcedo Makati for some core work.

Just like in any program towards progression, one had to keep on challenging himself or herself in order to move forward and achieve goals. This is where the new challenge hops in. I have signed up for V2Fix Challenge, arranged by Vivian Zapanta in collaboration with V Kitchen. It’s time to add body weights and pay attention to nutrition.

Asian Cancer Institute (ACI), a one-stop, integrated, multi-disciplinary cancer prevention and management facility located in the Philippines provides state-of-the-art, innovative and evidence-based treatment by a group of expert medical and allied cancer specialists. Having to avoid surmise diagnosis, ACI, is operating with four centers that offer easy access to screening and diagnostic procedures as well as individualized yet comprehensive cancer therapy and management.

Cancer being rampant in the country and in the whole world, ACI makes sure their doctors, nurses and medical practitioners including service focus on compassionate care for every patient providing a healing environment that comforts and heals the body as well as the spirit.

Cancer is affecting more and more Filipinos everyday. Here in the country at least 98,200 patients are diagnosed with this affliction every year. Of this number, over 59,000 individuals eventually die because of the disease, according to the Philippine Cancer Society.

This number is still expected to rise dramatically as the World Health Organization (WHO) forecasts that cancer diagnosis will rise by 70 percent in the next two decades. This translates to more deaths related to cancer in the coming years.

What is more alarming is that the WHO says that over 60% of the world’s total new cases come from the continents of Africa, South America, and Asia, home of some of the world’s poorest populations. Patients from these geographic locations also account for 70 percent of the global deaths because of cancer.

Today, cancer is regarded as one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide.

Here in the Philippines, WHO estimates that 28,700 males and 27,900 females died of cancer last year. For men, lung cancer (24.3%), liver cancer (14.7%), and colorectal cancer (12.8%) were the deadliest. While breast cancer (27.7%), colorectal cancer (10.4%), and lung cancer (9.9%) are the most fatal types of cancer. In Asia, the Philippines has the highest case of breast cancer according to the Philippine Society of Medical Oncology.

Several factors can also heighten the chances of getting cancer. These include, tobacco use, alcohol use, unhealthy diet, and lack of physical activity. Cigarette smoking is the most dangerous of these risk factors and accounts for about 20 percent of the total cancer deaths worldwide. But if one leads a healthy lifestyle, WHO says that cancer deaths can be lessened by 30 percent.

Cancer and mortality can also be significantly lessened if it is detected and treated at the earliest time possible. The most common types of cancer such as breast, cervical, colorectal, lung, oral, and prostate can be cured when detected early and treated according to globally-accepted best practices.

Changing the way we tackle cancer through integrated and multidisciplinary care to improve and transform cancer care and management here in the Philippines, the Asian Hospital and Medical Center (AHMC) will launch the Asian Cancer Institute (ACI) this July 23, 2015. ACI was created with the aim of providing modern services and advancing the rate of world-class scientific solutions, research and treatment for cancer patients.

“It is an integrated and multidisciplinary team approach to cancer care….given that all the disciplines and the services are housed in Tower Two of the Asian Hospital and Medical Center. In this center we’re putting everything together in one place. It’s from preventive oncology to end-of-life care,” Dr. Corazon Ngelangel, Director of ACI said.

This multidisciplinary approach to cancer treatment and care is the most important facet of ACI. From day one of consultation with ACI, a team of experts coming from different fields sit and discuss every patient’s case, saving the patient from skipping from one doctor to another to make sure that their diagnosis is correct. This novel approach is also advantageous because all possible modes of treatment are laid out to a patient.

Apart from its mission to improve the way we treat and manage cancer, ACI also provides compassionate care to every cancer patient and a healing environment that comforts and heals the body as well as the spirit. The patient is assisted in every way possible with support groups, psychosocial support, and even spiritual advice. These are offered to both the patients and their family members.

“For multidisciplinary team approach to cancer care, you’re not only talking to one doctor with one specialty but you are talking to many doctors with different specialties who need to be caring for you. Cancer is multi-faceted in its treatment. You need surgery, you need drugs, you need support. So everything should be there at first diagnosis,” Ngelangel said.

ACI boasts of four different but integrated centers of excellence. These are the Emmanuel Center which provides screening, diagnosis, and surgical care to patients with different malignancies; Conquer C Center mainly includes oncologists with specialized expertise in radiation therapy, nuclear oncology and interventional oncology; Chrys Center 1 provides Medical-Hematology-Pediatric oncology services, the area of cancer dedicated to treating adult and pediatric patients, by using medications taken by mouth, injection, or infusion, including internal medicine and pediatric medicine interventions; and Chrys Center 2 which is dedicated to providing the highest quality Integrative, Supportive and Palliative Care Services.

Dr. Ngelangel said that these centers house everything that may be needed by the patient. This facility will be home to unparalleled medical expertise coming from some of the best medical professionals in the country. This is further enhanced with the promise of compassionate care for every cancer patient and their family. Because as Ngelangel puts it, “in cancer you often comfort and you sometimes really cure. That’s how oncology is, that’s how cancer management is.”

ASIAN HOSPITAL AND MEDICAL CENTER

2205 Civic Dr, Muntinlupa, 1780 Metro Manila
(02) 771 9000

Asian Hospital and Medical Center (AHMC) is a tertiary hospital accredited by the Joint Commission International (JCI), the world’s most prestigious accrediting body for health care organizations.

AHMC is a part of the Metro Pacific Hospital Group, the largest private hospital group in the Philippines managed by the Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), the local unit of the First Pacific Group headed by Manuel V. Pangilinan.

Opened on May 11, 2002, the hospital with 289-bed capacity stands on a 17,250-square meter campus, carefully planned and specially designed to provide a healing environment, care and comfort, and ensure the safety of the patients, guests, and staff. There are also over 900 expert doctors from the different specialties who have been trained in top institutions worldwide and more than 300 nurses whose specializations include hemodialysis for patients requiring routine and intensive care; diagnostic procedures for breast lesions; supportive home care, pain management, and palliative medicine; cardiovascular surgery; and intensive care for cardiovascular and neurosurgical patients. Asian Hospital also has over 1,000 highly skilled employees and staff who provide high quality and compassionate patient care.

The days were filled with catching up on school load – an exchange of thoughts online, spending more time with my eBook reader and not having to log mileage as I was trying to recuperate from a bad flu. My nose had most of the workout, and days well spent on over-longed savasana.

Just add Lemon!

As much as possible, I didn’t want to self-medicate and pop on any manufactured medicines. Instead, I resorted on having a slice of lemon back in my system and gulped on liters of water throughout the day.

My tastebuds were almost close to non-existent, gulping on plain water wasn’t even palatable. Irked sniffing, coughing, with drowsed eyes and a red nose. I knew I had to do something other than sleeping and sitting around.

I bought myself two pieces of lemons which served me for a week and enjoyed its health benefits.

Did you know that our body needs to be fueled at least 60% of your body weight? Every organ in our body is dependent on water in order to function properly.

As I let the water flush down the toxins in my body, the lemon, which is low in saturated fat and sodium became a good source of folate, potation and vitamin C. Since I wasn’t able to work-out, the Potassium somehow helped on maintaining the protein on my muscles and did wonders as the Vitamin C repaired the tissues in all parts of my body by blocking the damages caused by the free radicals and the virus I was recuperating from. Lemon water also helps your digestion, which results also to weight loss.

The entire week also had me bid adieu on having rice on my plate. From having my usual cup of rice in every meal, I finally was able to taper down to just a few spoonfuls to finally not having any. This, my friends, is a leap.

Full Lotus Lift (Padmasana)

Towards the end of the week, with the excruciating heat of the weather. I settled on self-practice: 5 Sun-Salitations,and surprised myself with a full-lotus position lift. I knew I had to be well prior the weekend as I have scheduled and was looking forward to riding my bike again, and be at the playground where I first trained for descents, rolling hills and conquering up-hills.

Thankfully, I fully recovered the moment I woke up at 3am for the bike ride and giddily achieved a 20km loop.

You see, motivation and progress happens the least you expect it yet it’s truly up to us on how we’ll be able to find and have it.

Remembering conversations with the first boss I had when I migrated in the U.S. in 2007. He narrated how he claimed his dreams, on becoming the General Manager of the BEST resort in the world. He didn’t finish high school nor did he graduate from an Ivy league University but with perseverance and willingness to learn, he wanted me to put into heart to cherish every challenge, fail forward, calculate risks yet not to be afraid to try, be truthful of your limitations and hone your strengths. I never really understood these words not until I’ve reached this age when I myself couldn’t tell what is it that I want and what skills do I have to hone.

I still believe nobody really knows what one wants to do but one would have an idea what it is.

As a gal fresh out from college (I missed the commencement exercise) He read my essay and felt the height of my ambitions. Up until this day, I still can’t believe I had an upgrade from what I’ve prayed for.

He started as a bartender, once was part of different rank-and-file positions before he became the General Manager of the most known resort in the world. 8 years after, with the help of LinkedIN, I found out he finally took the step he’d always wanted to take off from his bucket list – he’s currently taking an Associate degree making his practice as a hotelier even more legit through earning a degree and get to learn the dynamics furthermore. Finally, he built his own global hospitality management consultancy.

He was right when he told me, it is only when you try, you’ll be able to know. Along the way, through knowing my weaknesses and sharpening my skill sets, this is where I finally inject pursuing further education.

It is through him when I found out about Cornell University​ and the thought has never left since. He specifically said something like “One day, when you get to chance to, you’d have to experience the ‘Harvard’ of Hoteliers” this day has finally materialized. A scholarship I never really thought would -re-represent in itself.

Following his footsteps, I hope one day, we’d bump into each other. I would want to thank him for those passed on words of wisdom. Education may not be a huge factor in achieving your dreams but it can be the key, or tool to get you there notably. I’d be stunned if I find out he’d be one of my virtual classmates.

I have been away from the Hospitality Industry but this time, I’m going back to my roots.

As I claimed my first online educational completion certificate from Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton Introduction to Marketing on Coursera​, I know, for the next steps, I’m ready.

I begin with my eCornell course on the 11th of June 2015 focusing on Hospitality Marketing.

Voke Tab, maker of healthy energy tabs, is pleased to introduce the Voke Reload program, a membership service that delivers directly to customer doorsteps on a monthly basis. Voke is now easily accessible to people anywhere in the country, and athletes like Conrad Anker, Kit DesLauriers and Jimmy Chin are taking advantage of the Reload program.

“With a growing customer base that includes a diverse mix of people from elite athletes and firefighters to executives and doctors, demand for our product is outpacing our retail distribution,” says Kalen Caughey, Voke Tab founder and president. “When people integrate Voke into their daily life, they want to have simple, reliable access to Voke. Reload delivers that.”

Voke is a chewable tablet that delivers a boost of smooth, natural energy from a combination of organic guarana berry, organic acerola cherry and green tea leaf caffeine. The tabs are naturally sugar-free and contain no artificial sweeteners, colors or flavors.

“Voke is integral to my daily routine, whether I am on an expedition, in the office or hammering out a grueling travel schedule,” says renowned mountaineer Conrad Anker. “Reload is a convenient service that helps me spend more time focusing on my next adventure.”

Voke Reload is available at http://voketab.com/. You can also find Voke Tabs at over 150 retailers in the Pacific Northwest and Montana, and in select Whole Foods stores.

About Voke® Tab

After years of competitive skiing, Kalen Caughey, founder of Voke Tab, was inspired to create a spill-proof, healthy energy alternative to provide portable fuel in the mountains. He teamed up with his father, Byron Caughey, a biochemist, to research an ideal combination of natural ingredients that would provide a balanced boost without sugar or artificial sweeteners. Choosing only healthy ingredients with scientifically backed benefits, Caughey created Voke Tab, and quickly gained a dedicated group of followers including numerous world-class athletes. To learn more about Voke, visit http://voketab.com/.